The Chinese government has provided funding worth $1 billion for sponsoring blockchain technology startups. The new fund called “Xiong’An Global Blockchain Innovation Fund” was announced on Monday during the commissioning of a new Blockchain themed park in Hangzhou province.

The Chinese government contributed 30% of the funds for investment purpose while the Yuhang District Government, the Future Science and Technology City Management Committee, and Hangzhou Haoyu Investment Management Co., Ltd provided the rest totaling 10 billion Yuan.

Reports published by Sohu, a Chinese-based online news agency says that the $1 billion dollar funds will be launched by ventures capital firm Tunlan Investments which has its facility in Hangzhou province. The Hangzhou province is a noted for its support for innovation and has contributed $400 million for investment that shows potential. The new blockchain industrial park will be used as an incubation center for the startups.

According to the publication on Sohu’s website (translated from Chinese), the Li Xiaolai a renowned blockchain investor would head the enterprise as the manager while Xu Xiaoping CEO and Founder of Zhenfund a ventures capital firm would be appointed its advisor.

Blockchain Technology: China taking the Lead

With this fund, China will be hoping to consolidate its lead in blockchain innovation in the world. With 68 blockchain patent applications, The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) topped the list of the most patent filings for Blockchain technology to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in 2017. Another Chinese entity, Alibaba came second, with 43 patent filings in the list which saw China produce more than half of the entire applications.

Salomon Sunny is the market reporter for Smartereum, one of the global leaders in Ethereum, blockchain and currency news. He produces technical price updates on digital currencies and writes recent developments about blockchain.